New LEGO Factory opens in Nyíregyháza: A pioneering greenfield investment, put together in just one year

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The LEGO Group’s new factory in Nyíregyháza, Hungary, took a year to build and a large part of the existing Hungarian capacity has already relocated to the new site. The facility meets up-to-date sustainability, safety and comfort requirements. The factory builds its operation on 1,500 employees recruited mostly from the region. The manufacturing complex was inaugurated earlier today in the presence of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

The LEGO factory in Nyíregyháza opened in 2008, and has since then been producing LEGO® DUPLO® and LEGO toys to markets around the world. The new plant, a three digit million Euro investment, will have a production area of 122,000 m2 and replaces a smaller factory at another location in the city.

A 21st century production plantThe new Nyíregyháza factory, an overall greenfield project, aggregates The LEGO Group’s experience in efficiency, safety and sustainability. The facility demonstrates the company’s vision of a 21st century production plant that has a positive impact on society and the environment. The electrical and lighting systems have been automated and high-performance thermal insulation building materials have been used to ensure energy efficiency, and by using rainwater the factory’s water demand has been reduced by 65,000m3 per year.

Employee safety always comes first in the LEGO Group. For example, the new factory walkways inside the factory area have been designed to ensure that pedestrian and vehicle routes never cross, in order to exclude the possibility of accidents.
Additional units of the factory, such as the automated high-bay warehouses – the biggest of their kind in the country - will be completely installed by 2015. Should there be a need for it in the future, the production complex can be expanded by the addition of further modules.

Increased Global Investments
The company increased its consumer sales by 11% in 2013, and its revenue has quadrupled in less than a decade. In order to meet huge global demand for its toys, the LEGO Group has stepped up its investments in production capacity development to over DKK 2.6bn (EUR 354m) globally in 2013. It has expanded its factories in Mexico and the Czech Republic as well, while the construction of the first Asian LEGO factory is also underway in China. The major investment in Nyíregyháza is part of this overarching strategy.

Fact Sheet• A three digit million Euro investment, financed from the LEGO Group’s own sources
• 100 acres of land
• Factory area bigger than 122,000 m2
• Number of new jobs created by the investment: 250
• 672 moulding machines, 53,000 m2 moulding area
• Manual warehouse: 6,000 m2
• High Bay Warehouse: 14,000 m2, for the storeage of boxes and pallets
• The two High Bay Warehouses can store ca. 82,000 pallets altogether
• 16 packing lines
• In 2013 the LEGO factory in Nyíregyháza produced 18 million boxes. Planned capacity for the new factory is 30 million boxes
per year.
• Apart from moulding all the LEGO® DUPLO® bricks of the world and a huge number of LEGO elements, the new factory will
also handle the packaging of both DUPLO and classic LEGO products.

• 26 acres of biodiverse eco-park will be established
• Points of vehicles crossing pedestrian traffic: 0
• Saving 60,000 m3 of drinking water per year
• 500 tons less CO2 emission on a yearly basis (if compared to a factory that uses traditional technology)
• Intelligent lighting in all buildings

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About the LEGO Group
The LEGO Group is a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company is still owned by the Kirk Kristiansen family who founded it in 1932. The LEGO Group is engaged in the development of children's creativity through playing and learning. Based on the world-famous LEGO® brick, the company today provides toys, experiences and teaching materials for children in more than 130 countries. About LEGO Manufacturing Kft.
LEGO Manufacturing Kft. was incorporated in 2008. As LEGO Group’s Hungarian production subsidiary, it operates its factory site in Nyíregyháza. The company employs 1,500 people at present. LEGO DUPLO products made here are supplied globally through distribution centres located in Jirny, the Czech Republic, and Dallas, TX, USA. The company delivers moulded LEGO bricks to Denmark, the Czech Republic, Mexico and Poland, and started packing classic LEGO toys in March 2014.